Lynx Plan Stalled

Threatened species

Idaho Fish and Game Director Steve Mealey has quashed plans to return Canada lynx to the Panhandle over the next two winters.

Just a month ago, he tentatively approved the project as a means to avoid having the cat protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Logging, trapping, road construction and ski areas have all but eliminated the lynx from the Lower 48 states, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials say.

Now the state worries that if the lynx were to be protected under the act, there is a risk that state hunting and trapping laws would have to be modified at the behest of Fish and Wildlife, Mealey said in a letter to University of Idaho wildlife biologist Dennis Murray.

“I have not been able to find a way to meet the scientific needs of the project and to be confident hunting and trapping will not be constrained,” Mealey wrote. “Please understand that if it was left up to the state to manage lynx, we would proceed without hesitation on this worthwhile project.”

“In the process of discussing various options, the Fish and Game decided it wasn’t worth it and capitulated to a couple of individuals making noise,” Murray said. Fish and Game is in the midst of raising hunting fees and “I think they are extremely afraid of losing support of hunters.”

Murray had worked for months to get permission to buy lynx from Canadian trappers and release them in the Clearwater National Forest.

It appears lynx will not be reintroduced into Idaho for at least a decade, even if Fish and Game changes its mind next year, Murray said. The Canadian population rises and falls with the population of snowshoe hares, its main prey, and both populations are about to crash, so Canada will not release any.